Bug#427559: [Pkg-cups-devel] Bug#427559: cupsd run as user changes in 1.2.11-2 breaks existing installations (no printing)

2007-06-05 Thread Martin-Éric Racine

On 6/5/07, Kurt Pfeifle [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Martin-Éric Racine wrote:
 On 6/5/07, Kurt Pfeifle [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Package: cupsys
 Version: 1.2.11-2

 I'm reporting on behalf of
 a customer who called me today because important functions on his test
 printserver [running on Sid] broke after upgrading to CUPS 1.2.11-2;

 He can not use that system any more for now, until he pays money to some-
 one to fix everything (if that is at all possible; otherwise to migrate
 it to a non-Debian distro).




 that I have serious issues with your report on one specific
 aspect:

 Your customer is running Testing on a production server that he needs
 to depend upon for everyday work.

No, you didn't read (or exactly memorize) what I wrote. I said it was his
*test* print server. Please check.


You said test server and yet you report on how this latest upgrade
alarmingly broke everything he is running on that.  That makes it
pretty clear that he depends upon that server for everyday life.



 * it is totally legal and valid to report bugs and submit wishlist items
   against a Sid/unstable system irrespective of the fact whether these
   were acquired on a production system


That you guys broke our system and it's gonna cost us a fortune to
get it fixed moaning won't help their case, at any rate. It also
proves that they actually rely upon that server for everyday use.


 * some people run Testing and Unstable *now* on their test and
   pilot systems because they have a long term plan to migrate hundreds
   of servers and 10s of thousands of workstations to Linux, away from a
   proprietary system (and by the time of the migration they hope to use
   a Stable or Testing version)


In which case it's just a test server, not a system running a number
of  scripts and filters they noticably depend upon.


I didn't see you participate in any of the detailed discussions that
took place on the upstream mailing lists about that particular topic;
not once on many occasions over the last 2-3 years when they happened;
therefore I do not deem you competent in uttering a verdict about
upstream having a patently broken security model.


I have been following the issue for longer than that, but whatever.
It has become clear to me that you only came here to bicker and to
push these maintainers into reverting every change that disagrees with
how you would maintain this package.

However, I have an even better proposal for you: become the CUPS
maintainer in Debian, yourself, right now.

Start by triaging the bugs currently open against the package.

Then submit patches that show what changes you would like to see in
CUPS for Debian (and keep in mind our stated goal to keep differences
between the Debian and Ubuntu packages minimal).

If you do a good job at it, we'll gladly let Your Expertness take over
the package's maintenance and, yes we mean it. :)

--
Martin-Éric Racine
http://q-funk.iki.fi


Bug#427559: [Pkg-cups-devel] Bug#427559: cupsd run as user changes in 1.2.11-2 breaks existing installations (no printing)

2007-06-05 Thread Kurt Pfeifle
Martin-Éric Racine wrote:
 On 6/5/07, Kurt Pfeifle [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Martin-Éric Racine wrote:
  On 6/5/07, Kurt Pfeifle [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  Package: cupsys
  Version: 1.2.11-2
 
  I'm reporting on behalf of
  a customer who called me today because important functions on his test
  printserver [running on Sid] broke after upgrading to CUPS 1.2.11-2;
 
  He can not use that system any more for now, until he pays money to
  someone to fix everything (if that is at all possible; otherwise to
  migrate it to a non-Debian distro).
 
 
  that I have serious issues with your report on one specific
  aspect:
 
  Your customer is running Testing on a production server that he needs
  to depend upon for everyday work.

 No, you didn't read (or exactly memorize) what I wrote. I said it was his
 *test* print server. Please check.
 
 You said test server 

I'm glad that everyone who cares can read for himself if I wrote
test printserver or else.

 and yet you report on how this latest upgrade
 alarmingly broke everything he is running on that.  That makes it
 pretty clear that he depends upon that server for everyday life.

Whatever.

What I indeed did want to make pretty clear are these current facts:

 * your current way of upgrading to CUPS 1.2.11-2 from a previous
   CUPS 1.2.x version breaks currently working installations

 * if you do not change $whatever (code, documentation, buildtime
   configure, startup script, postinstall-script, $wildcard) by the
   time this upgrade happens in next stable, your users may be hit
   quite unprepared by some printing b0rkenness

Please stop discussing your theories about how this customer may be
relying on a Debian Unstable for a production print server. This
theory's validity is completely irrelevant to the above two points.

  * it is totally legal and valid to report bugs and submit wishlist items
against a Sid/unstable system irrespective of the fact whether these
were acquired on a production system
 
 That you guys broke our system and it's gonna cost us a fortune to
 get it fixed moaning won't help their case, at any rate. 

OK, please forget this part of my mail. It was also irrelevant to
my important points.

 It also
 proves that they actually rely upon that server for everyday use.
 
  * some people run Testing and Unstable *now* on their test and
pilot systems because they have a long term plan to migrate hundreds
of servers and 10s of thousands of workstations to Linux, away from a
proprietary system (and by the time of the migration they hope to use
a Stable or Testing version)
 
 In which case it's just a test server, not a system running a number
 of  scripts and filters they noticably depend upon.

They do not yet depend on these scripts and filters; but they will,
once they migrate to Linux. And their decision to migrate will heavily
depend on how well the current tests and pilots work.

And current tests and pilots are being run in order to find out any
problems now, and to help iron out what can be ironed out...

Is that comprehensible?

 I didn't see you participate in any of the detailed discussions that
 took place on the upstream mailing lists about that particular topic;
 not once on many occasions over the last 2-3 years when they happened;
 therefore I do not deem you competent in uttering a verdict about
 upstream having a patently broken security model.
 
 I have been following the issue for longer than that, but whatever.
 It has become clear to me that you only came here to bicker and to
 push these maintainers into reverting every change that disagrees with
 how you would maintain this package.
 
 However, I have an even better proposal for you: become the CUPS
 maintainer in Debian, yourself, right now.

I'm clearly not qualified to be a package maintainer, because I just
know too little about building, packaging and Debian policies.

My qualification lies elsewhere. One field is what you call bickering,
yes.

 Start by triaging the bugs currently open against the package.

In case you did not notice: I *did* already start. Last night. Even
before I sent my first reply to you in this thread. And I suggested
to close the bug in question (Bug #259774).

 Then submit patches that show what changes you would like to see in
 CUPS for Debian (and keep in mind our stated goal to keep differences
 between the Debian and Ubuntu packages minimal).

I'd like to see as little changes compared to upstream pristine sources
as possible. Especially, if they are undocumented for the end user.
Especially if they change some fundamental behaviour of the software.
Especially if they do not explain how to get back the original behaviour.
Especially if they disallow to get back the original behaviour.

 If you do a good job at it, we'll gladly let Your Expertness take over
 the package's maintenance and, yes we mean it. :)

I even trust you on this. Be assured, My Expertness is much more lowly
educated than it may appear. 

Bug#427559: [Pkg-cups-devel] Bug#427559: cupsd run as user changes in 1.2.11-2 breaks existing installations (no printing)

2007-06-05 Thread Martin-Éric Racine

On 6/5/07, Kurt Pfeifle [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

What I indeed did want to make pretty clear are these current facts:

 * your current way of upgrading to CUPS 1.2.11-2 from a previous
   CUPS 1.2.x version breaks currently working installations


Correct and, at this early stage of Lenny development, something to be expected.



 * if you do not change $whatever (code, documentation, buildtime
   configure, startup script, postinstall-script, $wildcard) by the
   time this upgrade happens in next stable, your users may be hit
   quite unprepared by some printing b0rkenness


They will not, since the development cycle for Lenny leaves us with
enough time to iron things out.


 In which case it's just a test server, not a system running a number
 of  scripts and filters they noticably depend upon.

They do not yet depend on these scripts and filters; but they will,
once they migrate to Linux. And their decision to migrate will heavily
depend on how well the current tests and pilots work.


Evaluating the relevance of migrating to Free Software based on the
constantly moving target that is Testing/Unstable is rather crazy, but
whatever... Their choice.


 Start by triaging the bugs currently open against the package.

In case you did not notice: I *did* already start. Last night. Even
before I sent my first reply to you in this thread. And I suggested
to close the bug in question (Bug #259774).


Good thing. Thank you for that. Would you care to run through the list
of open bugs against CUPS and regroup those pertaining to my printer
doesn't work anymore with a usertag of your choice?



I'd like to see as little changes compared to upstream pristine sources
as possible. Especially, if they are undocumented for the end user.


Documentation usually happens later in a Debian release's development
cycle. To expect this to be fully documented already at a stage where
we barely got these changes into Testing is just plain silly.



Especially if they change some fundamental behaviour of the software.
Especially if they do not explain how to get back the original behaviour.
Especially if they disallow to get back the original behaviour.


Those choices tend to be explained in README.Debian, when they occur.
However, now is not a good time to ask for this documented, as we are
still testing the proper way to package newer CUPS releases.

--
Martin-Éric Racine
http://q-funk.iki.fi


Bug#427559: [Pkg-cups-devel] Bug#427559: cupsd run as user changes in 1.2.11-2 breaks existing installations (no printing)

2007-06-04 Thread Martin-Éric Racine

On 6/5/07, Kurt Pfeifle [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Package: cupsys
Version: 1.2.11-2

I'm reporting on behalf of
a customer who called me today because important functions on his test
printserver [running on Sid] broke after upgrading to CUPS 1.2.11-2;



He can not use that system any more for now, until he pays money to some-
one to fix everything (if that is at all possible; otherwise to migrate
it to a non-Debian distro).


I was gonna answer point by point to your very detailed wishlist,
except that I have serious issues with your report on one specific
aspect:

Your customer is running Testing on a production server that he needs
to depend upon for everyday work. As far as cretinism goes, this one
wins the jackpot.

There are two possible solutions to the above bug report's main issues:

1) Your customer must acquire the brains to realize that the only
sensible release to run on production servers is Stable and he should
therefore immediately downgrade to Etch.

2) As he nonetheless chose to run Testing, he is invited to fix his
software to match our changes and help us streamline the transition to
non-root user operation, by reporting on actual bugs, rather than on
features which we deliberately chose to close uptream's patently
broken security model.


Moreover, while you introduced these changes (amounting to a de-facto
fork from upstream IMHO), you did not sufficiently document these. In
fact, the CUPS documentation you ship is still suggesting to the user
that his cupsd runs as root.


The Debian changelog makes it abundantly clear that we're aware that
this is gonna break some things and that Lenny's development cycle
exists to iron things out.

--
Martin-Éric Racine
http://q-funk.iki.fi


Bug#427559: [Pkg-cups-devel] Bug#427559: cupsd run as user changes in 1.2.11-2 breaks existing installations (no printing)

2007-06-04 Thread Kurt Pfeifle
Martin-Éric Racine wrote:
 On 6/5/07, Kurt Pfeifle [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Package: cupsys
 Version: 1.2.11-2

 I'm reporting on behalf of
 a customer who called me today because important functions on his test
 printserver [running on Sid] broke after upgrading to CUPS 1.2.11-2;
 
 He can not use that system any more for now, until he pays money to some-
 one to fix everything (if that is at all possible; otherwise to migrate
 it to a non-Debian distro).
 
 I was gonna answer point by point to your very detailed wishlist,
 except 

Oh, I'm so sorry to have rubbed your skin the wrong way and to have made
you giving up on that noble intention!

 that I have serious issues with your report on one specific
 aspect:
 
 Your customer is running Testing on a production server that he needs
 to depend upon for everyday work. 

No, you didn't read (or exactly memorize) what I wrote. I said it was his
*test* print server. Please check.

 As far as cretinism goes, this one
 wins the jackpot.

As far as shooting quickly, but not precisely and rudeness goes, this
one surely does not take the last place.

 There are two possible solutions to the above bug report's main issues:
 
 1) Your customer must acquire the brains 

Please stop calling anyone any names in a public, archived Debian forum.

 to realize that the only
 sensible release to run on production servers is Stable and he should
 therefore immediately downgrade to Etch.

Please realize a few things:

 * it is his decision what he runs on his test printserver system(s)
 * it is his decision even if he'd run Sid on his production printserver
   system
 * it is totally legal and valid to report bugs and submit wishlist items
   against a Sid/unstable system irrespective of the fact whether these
   were acquired on a production system
 * you should be grateful to receive bug reports for Sid packages at all,
   wether they originate from user test or from user production systems
 * whatever Your Majesty may deem sensible for everyone, please do try
   to understand that *sometimes* Stable packages just do not have the
   features that someone needs in production, and that some people may have
   a strong need to run Unstable test systems so that their production
   systems running Testing or Stable can be early forwarned about
   upcoming problems
 * some people run Testing and Unstable *now* on their test and
   pilot systems because they have a long term plan to migrate hundreds
   of servers and 10s of thousands of workstations to Linux, away from a
   proprietary system (and by the time of the migration they hope to use
   a Stable or Testing version)
 * you can debate with me in private mail when and when not it is appro-
   priate to run Stable and/or Unstable; but this public thread started
   with a bug report/feature request that describes a real problem; that
   problem will make itself felt in Stable as soon as package makes the
   transition; therefor it is completely irrelevant if the current feed-
   back was won from a production or from a testing system.

Is that comprehensible?

 2) As he nonetheless chose to run Testing, he is invited to fix his
 software to match our changes and help us streamline the transition to
 non-root user operation, 

It is very revealing that you do not see this bug report as an occasion
to streamline your changes, Your Honor.

 by reporting on actual bugs, rather than on
 features which we deliberately chose to close uptream's patently
 broken security model.

I didn't see you participate in any of the detailed discussions that
took place on the upstream mailing lists about that particular topic;
not once on many occasions over the last 2-3 years when they happened;
therefore I do not deem you competent in uttering a verdict about
upstream having a patently broken security model.

 Moreover, while you introduced these changes (amounting to a de-facto
 fork from upstream IMHO), you did not sufficiently document these. In
 fact, the CUPS documentation you ship is still suggesting to the user
 that his cupsd runs as root.
 
 The Debian changelog makes it abundantly clear that we're aware that
 this is gonna break some things and that Lenny's development cycle
 exists to iron things out.

Whatever.

Please document it also in the *user* documentation, that every user looks
at first: http://localhost:631/help/. This part of CUPS can be patched as
well, ya know?  Please do not tolerate that this documentation contradicts
what behavior your source code patches along with your compile time changes
do change for the user.

Can you now say something to my requested changes, puh-leeze? Even if it
is WONTFIX?!

-- 
Kurt Pfeifle
System  Network Printing Consultant  Linux/Unix/Windows/Samba/CUPS
Infotec Deutschland GmbH  .  Hedelfinger Strasse 58
A RICOH Company  ...  D-70327 Stuttgart/Germany 
---
Infotec Deutschland GmbH
Hedelfingerstrasse 58
D-70327 Stuttgart
Telefon +49 711